


swan song

by WonderTwinC



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 06:25:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4950082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderTwinC/pseuds/WonderTwinC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This would be their final act.</p>
            </blockquote>





	swan song

And the city was burning around them - burning so fast that Laurel knew they would never be able to extinguish all the fires. Their world had twisted in on itself so completely that the damage would never be undone. Star City would never be the same place as it used to be, the place where she grew up and fell in love and collapsed in on herself to become something… something  _more_.

Where they’d all become something more.

Masks.

_Heroes._

_I don’t feel so heroic now,_  she thought to herself, breathing through burned lungs with her head in Nyssa’s lap and the assassin’s fingers running through her dirty hair in slow, gentle touches. Her eyes watered as she thought about John and Thea -  _her father_.

Everything and everyone she had ever known, ever loved - they were just  _gone_.

Everyone but Nyssa, who cradled her close and chased away the ghosts that hounded the both of them.

“You need to breathe, Laurel,” Nyssa reminded her in soft tones, calloused fingers brushing against sweat soaked skin. “I know that it hurts, but you must  _breathe_ ,” she whispered.

_I’m going to die anyway_ , she wanted to say, wanted to scream, but instead she pressed her blood stained fingers to her side and said, “Nyssa… could we pretend that, just for tonight - just - “ she swallowed against the sudden burning in her throat, taking first one shallow, struggling breath and then another.

And another.

“Could we pretend that if I asked, we’d run away- that we’d find someway out of this and go… just you and me.”

“Oh Laurel,” Nyssa’s fingers scratched gently against her scalp, creating a spark where before there had only been the beginnings of a chill. Warm breath heated her cheek and when Nyssa spoke again her voice was right there in Laurel’s ear, “You never had to ask.”

Tears slid down her cheeks, first one and then the other, cleaning away the dirt and grime that had caked itself on her battered face. And oh - how she wished that their story had a different ending, that they were back in that ridiculous diner she loved, eating fries and laughing over milkshakes - that John and Thea were with them and that her father was there too, gruff around the edges but  _happy_.

They were all happy.

Gunfire exploded outside her apartment and the loud, unmistakable sound of explosives rocked the foundation beneath them.

Nyssa touched her face, clearing away her tears with such a careful brush of her fingers. “Where would you like to go?”

She swallowed - inhaling a short, ragged breath that burned.

Laurel reached up, catching at the ends of Nyssa’s black hair with her blood red fingers.

Oh, how she wished their story ended with ‘and they lived happily ever after, in every city, in every world’.

Instead it ended in this moment - her fingers tangled in Nyssa’s hair, warm hands cradling her face and a half-smile on her lips as she turned her head, pressing a poor excuse for a kiss against the assassin’s trembling palm.

“Home,” she whispered, closing her eyes with a final, shallow breath.

_Let’s all go home._


End file.
